| Quest of the lost systems |
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| Chapter Two: Furibisha |
| Section 5: Masuda-shiki Ishida-ryu |
Masuda-shiki Ishida Ryu : Ishida-style a la Masuda (1) -- to be developed
into Tateishi-ryu.
Haya-Ishida(rapid-attack Ishida Ryu) was long considered to be one of those
trapping tactics which can be quite successful only if the opponent is unprepared.
Kozo Masuda, who was popular because of his insatiable zeal for creating
new theories in shogi, perfected it into a full-fledged strategy which was
eventually accepted among fellow professionals. Thus it was called Masuda-shiki
Ishida-ryu. The first diagram shows an early phase of the game played by
Masuda(black) and Oyama(white), April 20 & 21, 1971, as the second game
of Meijin-sen.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
+--------------------------------------------+ White in hand:
| wL | wN | wS | wG | wK | wG | wS | wN | wL | a +------------------+
+--------------------------------------------+ | |
| | wR | | | | | | wB | | b | |
+--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+
| wP | | wP | wP | wP | wP | | wP | wP | c
+--------------------------------------------
| | | | | | | wP | | | d
+--------------------------------------------+
| | wP | bP | | | | | | | e
+--------------------------------------------+
| | | | | | | | | | f
+--------------------------------------------+
| bP | bP | | bP | bP | bP | bP | bP | bP | g
+--------------------------------------------+ Black in hand:
| | bB | bR | | | bK | | | | h +------------------+
+--------------------------------------------+ | |
| bL | bN | bS | bG | | bG | bS | bN | bL | i | |
+--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+
Then followed (from white): S-6b, K-3h, P-6d, K-2h, S-6c, S-3h, K-4b,
R-7f, Bx8h, Sx8h, S-3b, G-7h, P-4d, N-7g, G6a-5b, B*9f. The last move, B*9f
was the fruit of Masuda's midnight oil, and turned out to be a beauty. As
a most likely next move by white, a drop of B at 9d would meet a counterattack
of Nx8e, which would be followed by Bx8e, R-8f, yielding a promising outlook
for the black player.
The actual moves they took were:(from white) B*5d, R-4f, P-7d, Rx4d, K-3a,
Px7d, Sx7d, P-8f, P-9d, N-8e, P-9e, B-8g... Masuda won this thrilling game
of 207 moves, all told, which marked a milestone of this strategy. That
it was adopted successfully in the meijin-sen, which was considered to be
the most prestigious event, helped to boost its name. Together with its
simplicity in form, it has become one of the most popular openings among
amateur players since then.
